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TSL3 Ro16 Day 1

After a string of spectacular performances we witnessed in the Ro32, it was once again Starcraft 2 time as the Ro16 Day 1 kicked off in the Pokerstrategy.com’s TSL3 tournament where some of the best Starcraft 2 players have and will continue to compete for that prized top spot. Unlike the Ro32 game which were best of 3, the Ro16 matches were Best of 5. After the more or less one sided GSL5 World Championship Finals between MarineKingPrime and MVP, more expectations were pinned on the TSL3 Ro16 day 1 confrontations just to redeem all that wasted spectator hype. And why won’t they be? The games were Liquid’Tyler (Protoss) vs. Prae.ThorZaIN (Terran) and oGsMC (Protoss) vs. Duckload.White-Ra (Protoss) after all! Tyler who beat Strelok 2-0 in Ro32 and ThorZaIN who defeated FruitDealer 2-0 in the Ro32 were up against each other first, as thousands of expectant eyes were peeled and glued to their screens.

Liquid’Tyler vs. Prae.ThorZaIN

Map 1 – Xel’Naga Caverns

Tyler got the North-East spawn location while ThorZaIN spawned at the bottom left corner. ThorZaIN got his refineries up and worked on getting those Tech Labs going while Tyler churned out those gateways along with the robotics facility. ThorZaIN then worked on getting a Starport and a Command Centre and both the players seemed to be uninterested in a committed early aggression. ThorZaIN in an unusual move went in for 2 Thors, some Vikings and put up a second factory without researching the blue flame upgrade for the hellions. In the meantime, Tyler got his 2nd Robotics up and ramped up his Colossi production. ThorZaIN then went in for a +2 armor upgrade while Tyler got 4 Colossi on the field with more in the production queue and got his blue flame upgrade going for those hellions. He then poked in from the left side of the map with the hellions trying to harass Tyler. In a big push, Tyler had to give up his gold expansion as ThorZaIN simply obliterated his Colossi and Sentries in a brilliantly executed attack. Tyler soon got his immortals out along with more of those Colossi being produced as ThorZaIN got his 4th base up, yet another planetary fortress. Tyler got totally outclassed by ThorZaIN’s brute force attack with the Thors ripping apart everything with the strike cannon as Tyler’s Stalkers, Immortals and Colossi fell like a pack of cards before he decided to call “gg” to give ThorZaIN the first map.

Map 2 – Terminus RE

ThorZaIN got the West spawn location while the red Protoss took the South spawn position on the map. Tyler got his Cybernetics core down in his main while ThorZaIN already got a 1 barracks expand. Tyler started off with 5 Stalkers with a pylon going into that same patch of land he likes to abuse on this map. Tyler then reinforced his Stalkers and went in for some harassment blinking past the SCVs landing right into ThorZaIN’s base. However, ThorZaIN defended really well as Tyler lost almost all his Stalkers despite dealing a lot of damage. Surprisingly, he had nothing to follow this initial attack up with as ThorZaIN then went in for a small siege tank force, pushing in and taking out those Zealots and Sentries and wiping out Tyler’s expo. Tyler had no replies to ThorZaIN’s attack and soon gg’ed out of the 2nd map.

Map 3 – Metalopolis

Tyler got the spawn location up north while ThorZaIN spawned exactly opposite at the South position. Tyler went for a double gas, 2 gateways and got his Robotics going while ThorZaIN went in for a bunker, a marauder, a reaper and put down a command centre. Tyler then went in for a double forge and 5 gateways while dropping in a Nexus. His Stalkers and Sentries soon came up while he waited for that Twilight Council to finish up. ThorZaIN on the other hand had his marines and marauders up as Tyler decided to move in with his army without taking up a 3rd base which could’ve been a huge mistake. He then decided to back off in a somewhat wise move while ThorZaIN got his Vikings up. Tyler Amassed more sentries and Stalkers while ThorZaIN put down 3 more rax obviously planning for a massive attack. In a battle up top, ThorZaIN managed to hold on and pushed in taking out Tyler’s stalkers, sentries and Zealots. Tyler had nothing left to his name at this point as ThorZaIN just wiped it all out with Tyler dropping from the game.

oGsMC vs. Duckload.White-Ra

White-Ra had put up a terrific Warp Prism play in their last confrontation in that infamous GSL upset. It was time for a rematch in a best of 5 in a PvP game against the beast from the east. This had to be one of the most anticipated rematches as “Boss Toss/Kratoss” and the self proclaimed “God Protoss” from Korea came in with redemption on his mind. The odds, oh well, you tell me!

Map 1 – Metalopolis

As MC took the North-east spawn point, White-Ra spawned at the lower west corner. MC put down his Cybernetics core and the same went down for White-Ra as he dropped a 2nd gateway. MC put up a robo in his main with 3 gateways. White-Ra added a 4th Gateway and got more Stalkers out on the map. White-Ra got his warp prism out as MC worked on his Twilight Council. White-Ra sneaked in with his Warp Prism and tried to get a pylon down near MC’s base but MC took it down and wiped all of White-Ra’s Stalkers with his own blink units. It was time for a counter attack as MC sent his Stalkers marching into the map towards White-Ra’s main and having an observer in his main to overcome that force field on the ramp as White-Ra called in “gg.” With a clear economic lead, MC turned out to be pretty dominant in game 1.

Map 2 – Xel’Naga Caverns

MC got the North-east spawn location as White-Ra got the lower left spawn location. White-Ra got on with 4 warp gates. The moment MC spotted the warp gates, he dropped 4 of his own! As White-Ra decided to poke in with his Stalkers, MC had some of his own as he reinforced them with some immortals that went to work obliterating White-Ra’s Stalkers as White-Ra gg’ed out. MC kept it short and sweet and this game got over sooner than one would’ve expected it to.

Map 3 – Crevasse

Both the players took the cross positions on the map with the upper right going to White-Ra and lower left position going to MC. Both the players got a pylon each in their main and almost at the same time just put up their first gateway. MC got his stalkers marching into White-Ra’s main straightaway as White-Ra got crushed 3-0 with MC marching into Ro8.

With MC and ThorZaIN marching into Ro8, both remained undefeated so far in TSL3. Day 1 showed us total domination with MC doing his homework this time around and exacting his revenge for the GSL world championship loss to White-Ra while ThorZaIN ripped Tyler apart with some insane mix of strategies and builds. Stay tuned for Day 2 because just in case you forgot, this is Starcraft 2 and anything can happen.